Scandal at ORU
October 6, 2007 So there's a scandal afoot at Oral Roberts University. In the Associated Press report there's a focus on Lindsay Roberts who is alleged to have:
- had a longtime employee fired so that a male friend could have his job
- cell phones bills that are frequently $800 a month + with hundreds of text messages between the hours of 1 and 3 AM to underage male students.
- spent $39,000 a year on clothing - at one store alone
- a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV purchased with University funds.
There's also the matter of Richard allegedly ordering students mobilized to participate in a local political election, contrary to the law regarding non-profit organizations, and someone (allegedly) signing off on the daughter of the televangelist using a university jet to fly some friends to Orlando and the Bahamas on a senior trip. The AP report also alleges - almost causally - that the Roberts house has been remodelled 11 times in the last 14 years and that university and ministry staff are regularly summoned to the Roberts' home to do the daughters' homework. It appears that a group of professors brought forward a report to the University's Regents that describing these excesses and were subsequently fired. Of course, we don't have the full story yet, but Richard's public response to date hasn't been reassuring.
What amazes me about these kinds of stories is how the level of Antoinette excess is simply not grasped by those involved. Never mind the text messages at 2 AM to underage males - we all can guess what that's about. The thing is, at what point does a $29,000 party for the kids seem okay? What does it take for $39,000 spent on clothing to be okay? How many luxury automobiles are enough? Richard's response - that God said this was the result of our litigious society - is just further evidence of exactly how dulled his sense of common decency has become. How do we - how do any of us - get trapped in this way of thinking? Hubris aside, once you get used to paying $600 a month for the cell phone, $800 doesn't seem all that bad. $29,000 spent on a party for the kids in the Bahamas is okay because it's seen in relation to other trips, other parties, other costs. When you're spending $39,000 a year on clothes - just on clothes - just from one store - what's a Mercedes or Lexus worth in comparison?
Prior to opening our public meals program I attended similar programs that were operating in our city. In one, a church group had come from the suburbs to serve a lasagna dinner in a church basement downtown. As they were serving dinner I looked around the room and saw something that, quite literally, left me stunned. The church people were all radiant and glowing while the rest of the room, filled with poor folks, were a dull, drab mass. There was a brightness and a sparkle to the church people that was striking. I'd like to think that was a Mosaic afterglow, but I'm doubtful. You see, all those nice suburban church goers could afford to buy their clothes new, and not used, when the colour has been washed out. They could afford the best laundry detergents - ones that contained chemicals added to reflect the light, others designed to preserve the colour of the fabric and prevent pilling. They could afford exactly the right shampoo and conditioners, the women could afford highlights in their hair. They were wearing jewellery. They bought their cosmetics from a consultant behind a gleaming glass and chrome counter, as opposed to off the shelf at the dollar store. These are not bad things, and they were not bad people. On the contrary - I think they were exactly where Jesus would want them to be on that Saturday night. It's just that they had no idea that they looked like this. They couldn't see it. Today I sat and watched a program called CityLine with the Resident Love Goddess. Everyone in the audience was given an package of Marc Anthony hair care products and invited to his new studio for a free styling. That's wonderful. So what's my point? I'm looking at his price list and seeing that a cut for men starts at $40 and I'm thinking, hey - that's not a bad price. Not bad, that is, to me. Many of our dinner guests cut each other's hair, or their own in front of the bathroom mirror. Those that can afford it will take the $10 cut at the discount chain 'salon'. To any one of them, $40 is an insane amount of money to pay for a hair cut, and they may be right. As I reflect on all of this it seems there's precious little about us as "Christians" that defines or separates us from the culture of success we are immersed in. We need to be careful about bashing Richard and Lindsay around on this one, we need to thoughtfully and humbly consider throwing that first stone.
I remember, about fifteen years ago, taking a friend and his wife on a walking tour of the conference centre where I worked . As we entered the trailer park and admired some of the mobile homes, the wife commented that she was struggling with the concept of all these "worldly Christians" with their vacation homes. Today they live in a new four bedroom home in one of our city's better neighbourhoods. The monetary value of their home would secure the financial situation for the Mission, guaranteeing shelter for up to fifty men and women for one year.
This is who we are.
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Reader Comments (11)
I also read recently of other big names in Christian ministries breaking up and divorcing, Paula and Randy White of Church without walls in Tampa Florida as well as Juanita Bynum and Thomas Weeks.
When I read about the money involved I got angry. The Whites had a 2.2 million dollar house in Tampa. Paula White had a 3.5 million dollar condo in Trump Towers and another multi-million dollar house in San Antonio I believe. I also believe she had a private jet.
Bynum and Weeks had a lavish televised wedding five years ago where the wedding ring alone was worth over 1 million dollars. They lived in a 2.5 million dollar house at the country club.
But I can't be all that shocked when I see church parking lots filled with nice - and very expensive vehicle.
Yet when I talk to some of these folks about ministering to the homeless or some other group that includes the poor, I generally get an answer something like "I'm not called to that."
I firmly believe that much of this is just God's opening shots on judgment on the Church in the United States. 1 Peter 4, makes it clear that judgment begins in the house of God.
For those of you who are our Canadian Brothers, try to humble youselves now so that you don't have to go through God's humbling which I firmly believe is coming to the church in the United States.
God bless you.
John - Indeed.
Sarah - I don't do this myself, but I'm beginning to think that the practice of a Sabbath is the most important thing we can do to overcome consumerism.
John Lunt - For a long, long time I've been trying to figure out what's been going on. It's like there's a madness that's gripped the Christian world and your explanation about judgement seems absoluetly right. When I look at some of the insanity going on in our own church I rather doubt we're all that much different than the US of A.